The Yankees have apparently added Kerry Wood in exchange for a PTBNL or cash. It’s really a flier on the Yankees part. If Wood pitches well, they have improved their bullpen. If he doesn’t, they can eat the $1.5 million they owe him easily. And don’t forget, Girardi caught Woods when he was at his peak, maybe that will help him pitch well again.

We’ve heard that Curtis and Miranda are being sent down for Kearns and Berkman and it makes a lot of sense. Curtis is a nice player to have on the bench, but with these additions, you can’t really find a spot for him. Now the Yankees have to figure out how to deploy Berkman and Kearns. With Berkman’s inability to hit LHP, they will need to make sure to avoid bunching him next to Granderson, but early reports are that he will hit second. That’s a mistake in my mind, Swisher offers a lot more than Berkman and should get the call in the 2 spot. Based on that, we will probably see something like this

That’s a better lineup than yesterday and when you throw in the Wood acquisition, you have to like what the Yankees did. I would have liked to have seen an upgrade for Pena, but they did very well nonetheless and there will certainly be guys who sneak through waivers in the next month.

UPDATE 4:35pm- Chan Ho Park has been DFA’ed. I will never understand what the Yankees thought they saw in those 3-1/3 World Series’ innings he threw that made them believe he would be good, but they have finally done the right thing. Next on my list, Mitre….

UPDATE 5:10pm- The Yankees also moved Aceves to the 60-day DL. Not sure why they DFA’ed Park today in that case. Wood was in Toronto at 3:45 today (they showed him on MLB TV) Is he really going to get to Tampa in time for tonight’s game or during it? If not, the Yankees are going to play a man short tonight.

6 Comments

Kerry Wood, huh? I think that’s great. He and Nick Johnson will be able to keep each other company on the DL . . .

MitchellAug 01, 2010 @ 10:36:12

I think that in the grand scheme of things, we picked up three potentially helpful rentals to take us to end of the season.

Berkman can possibly rediscover his swing and provide some pop and clutch at bats. He’s not yet too old to have lost it completely. We’ll see Thames instead of Berkman when we face LHPs, but that makes good sense. He may turn out to be the “great so what” aquisition but he only cost us a few bucks plus Melancon, who sadly seemed unable to regain his stuff with us.

Wood? Yep, Greg is right in that Wood is the poster boy for brittle pitchers the same as Johnson is for position players. But – do I feel more comfortable seeing Wood on the mound for us than Park? Absolutely! Plus he cost us nothing more than his monthly rental fees.

Kearns? He’s a steady bat and a decent fielder who pretty much insures that I don’t have to endure watching Thames wear a glove or Granderson hack at LHPs.

Yeah, Peter, I think we’re possibly a better team now -and certainly no worse than we were.

MitchellAug 01, 2010 @ 20:43:09

Note to Girardi: Hey Joe! (think Jimi playing a RH guitar as a lefty) What’s with your DH playing 1B? Was that really something you thought all the way through? Uh, please – let’s not do that again for a while, OK? Maybe Miranda can handle that for us (oh yeah, Berkman replaced Miranda).

Ugly game from a defensive standpoint.

PeterAug 01, 2010 @ 21:47:17

I kept having Giambi flashbacks. And while we’re at it, did A-Rod absolutely have to get a day off today?

MitchellAug 01, 2010 @ 22:27:39

Peter – From what I am reading, A-Rod’s hip barks at him on artificial surfaces – which tells me that A-Rod continues to play hurt. That pretty much explains his power outage and general struggles at the plate this year. The question is, does this problem improve with rest or are we stuck in this struggle until another surgery?

And yep, the Giambi image is right for watching Berkman struggle around 1B. Guy has the range and agility of a walrus. I wonder if Pena can cover 1B too? It’s never happend so I doubt it – but a good glove man like Pena might be a quick study. Something, anything to avoid watching Berkam put that glove on again. Miranda was/is a better fielder than this ..

PeterAug 02, 2010 @ 06:31:09

Yeah, I know they have to be careful, but it was an odd day to rest two starters.

I imagine we will see Swisher back at first before we see Berkman again. At least I hope so!